


Growing Up the Hard Way

by Karalyn



Category: Foreigner Series - C. J. Cherryh
Genre: Bonus Scene, Gen, aishidi, fancy tree metaphors, man'chi, teenage angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 01:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8825002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karalyn/pseuds/Karalyn
Summary: Veijico and Antaro make peace and talk about trees.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Missing scene that takes place immediately after chapter 9 of “Betrayer”. You wouldn’t think all of them would go to sleep at the same time but when Veijico has her nightmare later in chapter 14 they were all in bed, so who the hell knows, maybe Ilisidi set a couple of guards at the door of the suite. Spoilers for the entire second half of “Deliverer,” but honestly if you’re reading Foreigner fanfic you’ve probably read the whole series, unless you are one of my dear supportive RL friends who are kind about my obsession to a series they know nothing about
> 
> As much as 16-20 year old humans spend worrying about love, I imagine young atevi in that range spend time worrying about man’chi. Also decided that if the girls are going to spend literally the rest of their lives together that I wanted to see how they patch things up.

Antaro walked into the bedroom; Veijico was already sitting on her own bed.

“Nadi. One apologizes again,” Veijico said. “One wishes… one will try to fit into this household.”

“Thank you, nadi,” Antaro said automatically. She still was nervous around Veijico. She had heard how Veijico had taken out all the Guild who had kidnapped Barb-daja; she was older, she was taller, and she was scary. But she was also exhausted from her trip- on foot- into Taisigi lands and her time in Tanaja. Not to mention being grilled for information by Cenedi-nadi. Antaro supposed that in her current condition Veijico might be slightly less of a physical threat. And she looked miserable.

“We thought it would be boring here,” Veijico said quietly, looking at the ceiling. “Being assigned to a child, whose elders should all have his welfare in mind. We thought there would be little use for our skills, nadi, when we had been barely called upon in the aiji’s own service. And when our skills were needed we were not here to defend him.”

 _Ah_ , thought Antaro. She walked slowly over to the empty bed. She let the silence linger for a few moments before speaking.

“Cajeiri-nandi was kidnapped under our watch this winter, nadi. You may have heard.”

Veijico turned her head to look at Antaro, then lowered her gaze before replying.

“We did hear that such had happened, nadi. We were not of sufficient rank to hear the details; and it was before we entered the aiji’s household.”

“One supposes it would be useful to know. As a member of the lord’s security staff.”

“As senior security, it is your judgement what information to pass to us, nadi,” Veijico said, so meekly that it made Antaro look at her sharply to see if it was meant as mockery. But the other girl’s face showed only solemnity. Antaro inclined her head slightly, in acknowledgement of the statement.

“Jegari was with nand’Cajeiri. I was sleeping in the adjacent room. One of the dowager’s servants had betrayed her and let in the kidnappers.” Antaro spoke quietly, looking over Veijico’s head at the far wall, not meeting her eyes. “Jegari heard a noise and went to investigate. They grabbed him and drugged him. The commotion woke me up, and when I went to investigate and tried to follow them, they knocked me unconscious. They took ‘Gari and nand’Cajeiri and left me behind. But Jegari escaped. He could not wake our lord so he ran to get help, and broke his arm, jumping from a moving truck. Neither of us were able to help him.”

“You are not Guild. Forgive me, nadi, one means no insult, but it should not be expected…”

“The Guild assigned to the heir by the aiji-dowager _and_ the Atigeini lord were all drugged as well, nadi,” Antaro interrupted her. “And the kidnappers were not Guild, yet they outmaneuvered even trained Guildsmen. The maid who betrayed us, Pahien- we had watched her and noted that nand’Cajeiri was uneasy in her presence. He sensed something that no one else did, though he could not put words to it, and we did not believe it was any more than childish pique at a servant who was trying to gain favor.”

A pause.

“One understands aijiin see such things differently, nadi,” Veijico offered. “And whatever else he may be, nand’Cajeiri is clearly aiji-born.” Another pause. “Was it the dowager’s men who rescued the young gentleman, then?” 

“The young gentleman was originally placed in a basement cell by his captors. He pretended to be ill to get them to move him a less secure location,” Antaro said, and smiled in spite of the serious topic. “He dug a hole through the plaster in wall of the room where they locked him. He ripped wire out of the wall and rigged it to the ceiling light to electrify the doorknob, then escaped through the hole in the wall and out through the kitchen, after disarming the kitchen door alarm.”

Veijico blinked, clearly these were details of the event that had not made their way to common knowledge.

“Of course at that point he was alone, on foot, in the snow with no real supplies or even a firm notion of where he was, other than somewhere in the East. It was nand’Bren who actually found him.”

“That…” Veijico cleared her throat. “After spending time with nand’Bren and his aishid, one does not find that as surprising as one otherwise might.” She looked at Anataro for a long moment. “How did you come to be in his service? One had assumed you were assigned, since his father the aiji chose Taibeni Guild for his own guard.”

“We met him just after he returned from space. Our parents helped the aiji dowager, and nand’Bren and nand’Cajeiri get through Taibeni lands to reach the Atigeini. We travelled with the party for two days. When our parents split off,” Antaro paused and shrugged with one shoulder, the way she had seen nadi-Jago do. It looked very grown up and self-assured when nadi-Jago did it, and Antaro hoped her copy of the gesture looked as good. “We had to go with him. We _could_ not leave him. Our parents worried, but they would not stand in the way of man’chi. One is sure they still worry.” She looked at Veijico and saw the older girl had a strange look on her face; vulnerable, hungry.

“That fast?”

Antaro nodded.

Veijico looked away. “One has never experienced such a thing.”

Antaro had been undressing for bed. She slipped under the covers.

“In Taiben, there are many different kinds of trees in our woods. When autumn comes, some have leaves that change color brilliantly, all at once, and fall all at once. Others change color slowly and lose a few leaves every day for the entire season. The process is so gradual one does not notice until the first frost arrives that the tree is bare. My father's sister says man’chi is like that; once the season has concluded, one cannot tell them apart.”

“My brother and I are from the mountains, nadi,” Veijico said. “We have other kinds of trees there. Some never lose their leaves at all.”

Antaro suppressed a smile.

“The prickly ones? We have them too.”

“For some trees it only happens when they finally die,” Veijico said.

“Hoishia-an kuontei,” Antaro said, and Veijico looked away. “Banichi-nadi said so. Yet you are here.”

“My partner is not,” Veijico said, very quietly.

“Well and so, nadi. But he is of your blood. Surely you must both be the same kind of tree.”

Veijico looked at Antaro, for a moment, as if she thought the younger girl had lost her mind. Then she started to laugh, hard.

“When we were young, I once watched Lucasi try to make all the leaves fall off a very young tree by shaking it as hard as he could,” Veijico said once she had gotten her breath back.

“Did it work?” Antaro asked, trying not to laugh herself at the incongruity of the image.

“Yes,” Veijico said, still smiling. “After a time. Even then he was stubborn enough not to give up until he had gotten it to do what he wanted.” Her expression quickly became sober again. “One feels that indeed, perhaps the world has decided to grab hold of us both and shake until it gets what it wants.”

“Nand’Bren will find your brother, nadi-ji. One is sure of it," Antaro said, using the familiar address without thinking. "Surely the tree survived your brother. They are sturdy things, trees. 

“That tree survived to bloom again in the following spring. Perhaps both of us also may,” Veijico said. “Thank you, nadi-ji. I think I will sleep better now.”


End file.
